Carsten Snejbjerg December 3, 2008

Photojournalist Carsten Snejbjerg (b. 1966, Denmark) became interested in photography during his 3,400 km bike trip through China and Vietnam in 1997 and in 2000 he entered the Danish School of Journalism. He has won several awards including the 2008 first prize POYI Issue Reporting Story, second prize in Best of Photojournalism and several awards in the Danish Picture of the Year. He works as a freelancer for various magazines, newspapers and agencies worldwide. His images have appeared in Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Marie Claire, Der Spiegel, Stern, GQ , Time and the Smithsonian magazine. He lives in Copenhagen with his family.

About the Photograph:

“This picture shows some of the wealthier men relaxing in front of a café in the Manshiet Nasser neigborhood of Cairo I spend two weeks there trying to capture the feeling of daily life. The men and young boys of Manshiet Nasser collect more than a third of the 10,000 tons of daily garbage produced in Cairo. The Zabbaleen community of trash collectors recycles 80-85% of the garbage they collect. Three hundred fifty thousand people live and work there. The Zabbaleen migrated from rural Egypt in the 1950s during a time of drought. They were Coptic Christian pig farmers who began collecting garbage to feed their animals. The infant mortality rate is around 12 percent, twice as high as rest of Egypt. An extremely high percentage of the children suffer from respiratory illnesses, diarrhea, and infectious diseases. Forty-nine percent of the inhabitants have intestinal parasites.”

About...

Photographer and photo editor Geoffrey Hiller has created Verve Photo to feature photographs and interviews by the finest contemporary image makers today. Verve Photo is a reminder of the power of the still image. Verve Photo will also point you to new photo agencies, publications, and inspiring multimedia projects.